This blog is a forum for Mentor High School Honors English 12 students to engage in book discussions based on free reading books.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, takes place in England around the nineteenth century. It is about a young girl named Jane who starts her life out living in Gateshead with her so called aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her cousins. The main reason why Jane lives with them is due to her parents charity. Throughout her childhood, Jane is treated poorly by the Reed family and puts up with it for many years. Finally, one day Jane speaks up which ends in her being sent to the “red-room,” which is where Mr. Reed died. Jane states, “no severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, of which I feel reverberation to this day” ( Bronte 22). The room made people nervous and sometimes made them feel things. Jane feels her uncle’s presence in the room, and thinks that he is out for revenge on Mrs. Reed for treating Jane unlike her own children. Finally Jane gets the right to go to school at Lowood; however, the school is for orphans, requires no money to go there, and does not allow the students to groom at times. Jane’s aunt tells the school how “bad” of a kid she is and after a little Mr. Brocklehurt tells the school about Jane’s so called lying issues she has. This made everyone shun her in school. Jane makes a friend, Helen, who along with her teacher, Miss Temple, assist Jane and make her life much easier to endure. Soon after life for the students gets easy, it gets hard again but to an illness that overtakes more than half the children in the school. After school, Jane attends a position in Thornfield. Before she parts for her new position, she is told that her father’s brother, John Eyre, came looking for Jane. Once she arrives at Thornfield, she feels very welcomed and meets the owner Mr. Rochester. Rochester and Jane seem to get very close throughout the novel. He stays awake one day telling Jane about his past. Later on, Jane saves his life from a burning room. After this, she feels something for Rochester. Jane says, “he made me love him without looking at me”(Bronte 177). Also, Jane gets suspicious of Grace Poole, who works at Thornfield. Jane later returns to Gateshead where she learns that her father’s brother had wanted to adopt her three years ago. Once she returns to Thornfield, Rochester asks her to marry him and he later on explains many significant situations that occur before their wedding comes. As the wedding day arrives, Jane finds out that Rochester is married still to Mrs. Mason, who is locked up and is taken care of by Grace Poole due to her becoming insane. This ends up making Jane leave town and live at the River families house who help her out. She lands a job as a teacher and becomes infatuated with St. John and Rosamond’s relationship. St. John figures out that Jane is really Jane Eyre and he tells her about a large sum of money that was left behind for her from her uncle. Jane ends up allowing St. John to direct almost their whole life, and asks her to marry him, but she refuses and moves back to Thornfield. She arrives at the place to find out that it has been burned down by Mrs. Mason. Rochester and Jane end up finding each other and he proposes again to Jane. They end up marrying and live as equals. Jane does some good deeds for people after their marriage. The fire had made Rochester blind, which Jane helps him to cope with. Later on, Jane and Rochester end up making a family of their own. The novel shows the way social class was split up during the nineteenth century. Also, the book shows how women were seen still inferior to men. St. John felt that he was greater than Jane, and ended up ruling her life. The novel mostly revolves around how people fit in with society related to their gender, religion and wealth.

1) How would you feel if you were treated poorly by a family that you did not choose to be raised by?

2)Would you want to live as an orphan, like Jane,atleast for a day to see what it is like? If so what do you think a true American orphanage looks like and treats children like?

3)Jane loves Rochester, but throughout the novel she seems to run away from her love. What would you do if you were about to marry someone and you find out they are already married, yet they say that there is nothing to worry about?

4) Many people in America treat others poorly, like how Jane was treated by the Reed family. What is there for us to do to help out the ones being teated badly?

5)Today do you feel like people are still put into social classes due to their wealth, religion, or gender? If so give an example.

26 comments:

1. If I was treatly badly by a foster family I would probably run away. 2. I would not like to live as an orphan. I have seen things and heard about orphans and it does not seem fun and even as a learning experience I would not want to experience it. An orphanage in America is probably not as bad as people picture them to be.

1. I agree with Kelsey, and feel if I were in that position and saw that I was being treated unfairly I would most likely run away or try to escape.2. I would never want to experience what it is like to be an orphan because, from what I have seen and heard about in my life, it is not a positive experience. I feel like orphanages in the U.S. are in better shape than in most countries, but that does not mean that they are a good environment to grow up in.3. I would feel worried that they are not facing their problem or taking it seriously.4. We need to teach people that they need to treat others how they want to be treated.

5) I think people today are still discriminated against for their gender or race or religion. For instance, as a woman, I still feel that even though society has become less harsh, a woman is still expected to be with a child at home cooking and cleaning while the man works. Even when dating someone, a guy doesn't like when you beat him at anything, including board games or grades.

If i lived someplace where i was treated badly, i would feel horrible. It is never a great feeling when someone yells, or disrespects you, even if your not related to them. And if i was in her situation i think i would be worried if i found out my boyfriend was already married. I would be mad.

2. I would definitely want to live as an orphan for a day to see what it was like, which sounds really masochistic, but I think it would show how truly lucky I am to have two parents and other family members to care for me and such. It would be kind of awesome to live a different life for a day.

5. Today, people are definitely put into social classes based on these things. Not on our country, but in many other parts of the world women are not at a status equal to men. Discrimination is everywhere, and even in democratic nations people are put in different classes.for an example, we have three main social classes in the united states that are based on wealth.

I agree that if I was in a foster home and treated badly, I too would try and get out of there. Also, I agree that discimination is everywhere. I think that in America that there still is the stereotype that women are suposed to be the ones that clean and make food; however, most men do them too. Amanda, I would like to go for a day to see what it is like for that same reason. I feel that having that once in a life time experience would show a lot of people how good their life really is. In addition, I would be furious if I found out my boyfriend was married. I would run away from him and never come back.

I think that if I were being treated unfairly by a second family, in this day I would call CPS, but since obviously there wasn't a CPS the only option is to run away and try to find some alternative way of living that would be better than living with an abusive family.

I would feel as if I had no emotional connection to this family if they did not want me to be a part of their family. I would not want to be an orphan, I imagine their life is extremely tough and it would seem that no one would love me. I would feel betrayed if the person I love loves someone else but tells me I am number one. The only thing to prevent someone from being treated wrongly is to step in by forcing the antagonist away and try to help the victim.

1. I believe I would feel very sad and depressed if I was treated poorly by a family that I did not choose to be raised by.2. I actually think it would be interesting to live as an orphan for a day. I would like to see the living conditions they must go through, and it would definitely make me more thankful for what I have. From my experience, I would try and spread the word on helping those in need.

Eric I agree with you that stopping people from getting harmed you must stop the harmer. I think that in todays world to many people think of themselves rather than helping others. Erika I agree that it would be very depressing to be treated that way, especially by your so called mother and father. If i went to be an orphan for a day, I would also try and spread the word to as many people as I know. If i was an orphan and ran away, I would have a hard time figuring out what to do with my life and how to take care of myself.

Answering question number 2, I think it would be very interesting to live as an orphan for a day. Not only would it be extremely eye-opening, but it would also give you more heart for the children who have to live like that everyday. I think that there are probably plenty of nice orphanages within the United States. But, I also think that there are probably a lot of orphanages that are poorly funded and in need of finacial aid.

2. I would not have wanted to live as an orphan, not having a family to call your own would be a terrible experience. And i'm sure american orphanages are no where near as bad as orphanages in other parts of the world.

I agree Fritz that american orphanages probably are not as bad as orphanages in other parts of the world. Other places do not have all the resources and money to give homeless children a nice place to live.Tyler I would feel that same way. I do not understand why someone would say that they would take care and raise a child, yet treat them really bad. It would have been better for them to just let someone else take Jane in.

1) No one chooses their family that they are raised by, but if I didn't like the people that raised me, I probably would just try to ignore them as much as possible. Especially if they didn't want to raise me either.3) There's not a lot that we can do for people that are already treated poorly because many of those people keep it to themselves like Jane did in the beginning of the novel. However, we can try to prevent cruel and unfair treatment by starting with ourselves and treating others with respect.

1. If I was treated poorly by my family I would choose to not live with them if I could but the chances of that would be unlikely as a child being raised.5. Pople today are still put into social classes due to wealth, Religion, and gender. For instance Actors and billionaires are at a high point of the social order in todays world while factory workers are at the low.

2) I wouldn't necessarily say that I wanted to be an orphan for a day but I do think it would provide a valuable perspective on a life that is less fortunate than mine and drive me to better myself so that I could maybe one day help them... or something

1. In modern days I believe it is easier to speak up about negligence and abuse in order to make life better even as a young child. In the generation of my grandparents and earlier it was not this way, and I would imagine that some children and teens had a very rough time.2. Once again, I believe that living conditions are better for orphans in modern times than they used to be. I would not want to feel the sadness in being an orphan or an only child. I can imagine the feeling enough, and already hold a great sympathy for those in this awful situation.3. I would disagree and say that there is everything to worry about. I would not speak to my love until I saw official divorce settlement papers.4. Child services in modern times has had much success at reaching out to youth in need.We have foster parent programs and orphanages in order to care for abandoned children.5. Yes, in a way i believe that American society is splitting into two social classes of rich and poor. The depletion of the middle class is a very real concern brought on by the recession.

It would be horrible to be raised by a family that didnt love me and treated me badly. It would make you think less of your self if those rasing you didnt treat you well. I would do all i could to get out of a situation like this and try to find a family that truly wanted me.

4- The only thing most of us can do is to just treat everyone else the best we can and hope they pass it on. You can try and convince people to change the way they act but it does not always work.5-Absolutely, woman still get paid less, different religions are looked down upon and hated, poor people are supposed to be bad, same with the rich.